LAHORE, Sept 9: A bomb hoax delayed a Karachi-bound flight for nearly four hours here on Saturday. Carrying 200 passengers, PK-305 was about to take off at 6:45pm when passengers were asked to disembark. The flight was cleared for take off at 10:30pm.

Officials said that an employee of PIA’s reservation office informed the management that an unidentified caller had told him that a person carrying explosives was boarding PK-305.

The information was immediately conveyed to the airport authorities and passengers were asked to disembark. The luggage was unloaded as the bomb disposal staff, airport security force and others started a search for the explosives and the suspect.

The passengers were not allowed to leave the boarding lounge for ‘security reasons’.

Reportedly, some passengers wanted to leave the airport by cancelling their journey but they were not allowed to leave the boarding hall till the aircraft security clearance.

Those scheduled to leave for Doha, Dubai and some other destinations through connecting flights from Karachi on Saturday also missed their journeys.

According to a PIA spokesman, PK-305 was cleared for departure after the security clearance and no other domestic and international flight from Lahore was delayed.

Asked if Lahore-bound flight PK-304 was also delayed from Karachi on Saturday in this connection, he said the flight was late due to some operational problems.—Staff Reporter